Wednesday, April 13, 2005

24*7

Trying to talk Helpdesk through AS400 screens at 9.45pm whilst in a noisy Thai restaurant with no access to said AS400 in order to figure out why some labels aren't printing in a paper mill a couple of hundred miles away is not an easy task, as I discovered last night.

However, assisted ably by a finger in one ear and tightly shut eyes (trying to picture what the Helpdesk analyst could see), I was able to rule out any problem with the '400. It had done its job. And I mine.

It turned out that the printer was faulty. As soon as it was swapped over, the labels started churning out again and we could all sleep soundly.

Although whilst we slept, someone broke into the pool car in the hotel car park (I'm currently away on business with a colleague) and stole the iPaq which was in the boot. We're currently "stranded" in Maidenhead until we can get a replacement rear windscreen, which appears to be taking some time.

I wonder if I'll get back to Somerset in time for running club!

In the meantime, a month and a half into a project and the users still aren't clear on what their requirements are.

What started out as "can we provide one extra piece of information for product x?" has turned into "can we completely change the way we deal with product x?".